Another change opens a new chapter

There are still days when it doesn’t feel real.

And by days, I mean today and yesterday and the couple days before it, which is pretty much the extent of my time in east central Indiana thus far.

It’s certainly a change of pace for me to move away from the Chicagoland area for a prolonged span for the first time in my life, to go from walking or driving past a few thousand people a day to having a few thousand in your whole town. But changes of pace are nothing new for me, and I’m looking forward to this one.

My journalism journey started with a sudden change, when my plans to study math were upended by a harrowing realization. During my freshman year at Aurora University, a small school about an hour west of Chicago, I noticed that there were more letters than numbers in my calculus equations. So I figured I’d just expedite the process and make letters my thing. 

I ended up transferring to Trinity International University, where my passion for sports journalism truly began to blossom as I wrote a deluge of event recap articles for the athletic department and served as the school’s primary play-by-play voice when I wasn’t on the field as a member of the baseball team. Now, if you haven’t heard of Trinity International University, I can find it in my heart to forgive you — first, because it was a minuscule institution nestled into the Chicago suburbs, and second, because it doesn’t exist anymore.

It was the spring before what would have been my senior year when I got the news that Trinity was closing, indicating that whether I liked it or not, another significant change of pace was on the way. 

I scrambled to get my resumé together and my applications out, and decided it was finally time to put down the bat and pick up the keyboard, pursuing my journalistic passions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It was a whirlwind two years to finish up my degree, but Trinity’s demise ultimately proved to be a blessing in disguise. 

From interviewing Illini men’s basketball coach Brad Underwood as part of a live broadcast to producing a live 30-minute weekly sports television program, I truly had the chance to do it all at Illinois. But the more things changed, the more they stayed the same, and I continued to be drawn in by the passion that ignited the fire to study journalism in the first place — that of sports writing.

So as I got set for my first foray into the professional world, sports writing jobs were the ones I instantly pursued. When this opportunity fell into place, I didn’t hesitate. What’s another change to me, after all?

Of course, you can’t pivot toward something new if you don’t have a firm foundation to cast out from, and I’m fortunate to have a tremendous support system behind me as I continue to make uncharted territory familiar. Throughout this entire process, I’ve been buoyed by my faith, my family and my friends, three things to which all my ambitions as a writer pale in comparison. While I have plenty of introverted tendencies, the more comfortable I get, the more you’ll see the brash, gregarious side of me as well as the stoic, businesslike one.

Away from work, I enjoy any form of competition and love trying new things, especially anything having to do with athletics. Recently, I picked up table tennis, and more lately, I’ve been trying my hand at golf. If you’re ever stuck in the desert in desperate need of hydration, please give me a call — all I need is a golf club in my hands and if there’s water anywhere, I will find it.

Jokes aside, I genuinely can’t wait to get out in the community and make things happen. As my entire journey — from being a three-sport high school athlete to being a college baseball player to doing all manner of sports coverage — has taught me, sports and the community are inextricably linked. So I’m hyped to get to know the community through its vibrant sports scene. 

From the Windy City to Hoosier country and everywhere in between, let’s go! Here’s to another change and a wonderful new chapter.